A/N: Thanks again to everyone who left such lovely reviews! They're like little presents in my inbox and I treasure every single one. Thank you! :)

Chapter 8

Keith barely had a chance to register the chill on his skin and pull his eyes open before he was pitching forward. He tried to bring his arms up, but they were far too slow to respond and then he was falling, falling – until something snagged his arm and caught him around his waist.

Strong hands held him and suddenly there was a vice around his throat, memories of hands that were punishing and abusive crowding to the front of his mind, and he tried to jerk back.

"Let go of me!"

But the grip on his arm only tightened and Keith panicked – they were gonna kill him!

"Keith! Keith, calm down, buddy, it's me, it's Shiro. I've got you, you're safe."

It took a moment for the familiar voice to cut through the panic and memories, for the words to sink in. Breathing hard, he looked up and Shiro was there. So were Lance and Hunk and Pidge, all standing around him, and suddenly his knees threatened to buckle with relief.

"Oh," was all he managed to say.

"How do you feel?" Shiro asked.

His head hurt, his throat resembled a piece of sandpaper and he felt kind of weak and light-headed, but…he clearly wasn't dying. "Fine," he replied, realizing he was still leaning against Shiro. He tried to stand up straighter and take more of his own weight.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Dude, hasn't anyone ever told you that you're a terrible liar?"

Keith scowled and pulled back further from Shiro just to prove that he was fine. Unfortunately, it was that exact moment the room chose to start spinning. Keith hastily tried to correct, but ended up completely overbalancing, stumbling backward and—

"Whoa!" Shiro exclaimed, catching him under one arm, hauling him upright, and suddenly Lance was there too, grabbing his other arm.

"Jeez, take it easy, Keith," Lance chided. "You still look, like, three shades paler than your usual pale."

"Let's get you to a chair," Shiro said, steering him to the doorway.

"Actually, uh…maybe you should, I dunno, get him to a shower first?" Hunk interjected. "Cos, you know…" He was waving his hands at Keith and only half-looking at him.

Keith looked down at himself, and his eyes widened. He was still in his undergear. His torn and very bloody undergear. His hands were also caked with dried blood and now that he thought about it, his face felt kind of itchy and sticky too. No wonder Hunk was barely even looking at him – he probably looked like a corpse!

"A shower would be good," Keith agreed.

"Very well," Allura spoke up from behind them. "A shower and change of clothes first, and then you really must eat something; you haven't had anything to eat in at least four quintents."

Keith's eyes widened. "Four quintents?!" Well, now he knew why he felt so weak, and why his throat was so damn dry.

"You were in a cryo-pod for three and you were…gone for almost a quintent and a half."

"Oh."

"C'mon, I'll help you to your room," Shiro said, tugging on his arm.

"Need a hand?" Lance asked.

Shiro glanced at Keith before shaking his head. "I've got him."

"I can walk," Keith insisted, irritated that they were talking about him in third person when he was right there.

"Of course you can," Shiro said in an appeasing tone. "It's just in case you fall."

Lance let go of Keith's arm and moved to stand beside Hunk and Pidge. "See you guys in the rec room then."

"I'll have the food ready!" Hunk called after them.

"You okay?" Shiro asked once he and Keith were on their way to Keith's room.

"Fine," Keith replied, allowing himself to lean on Shiro a little. "Just a little light-headed. And thirsty."

"I didn't mean physically."

Keith didn't look at him. He was kind of trying not to think about what had happened, preferring to deal with it the way he always dealt with traumatic stuff – ignore it until it went away. "I'm okay," he replied.

Shiro didn't push.

Halfway to his room, Keith found he was glad Shiro had insisted on accompanying him because his steps were becoming increasingly unsteady and he had to lean more and more of his weight on Shiro. He felt…weird, like his brain was remembering wounds that weren't there anymore.

"You uh…gonna be okay in the shower?" Shiro asked when they reached Keith's room.

Keith gave him a flat look.

Shiro raised his hands in surrender. "O-kay, I'll wait out here. Just call if you need anything."

Keith grabbed some clothes and shuffled into the bathroom. Catching a look at himself in the mirror above the sink, he froze. Holy crap, he really did look like a corpse! His hair was matted with dried blood and there were dark smears on his face. He shuddered and quickly turned on the shower.

After scrubbing himself clean, getting dressed and downing a glass of water, he felt a little better – stronger. A quick glance in the mirror confirmed that he no longer looked like a walking dead guy, although there were circles under his eyes and he still looked paler than usual.

Shiro was still waiting for him when he got out of the bathroom, but he was watching Keith with a strange expression on his face.

Keith frowned. "What?"

"Nothing, I just-" Shiro trailed off, then opened up his arms. "Is it okay if I-?"

Oh.

Keith smiled a little, stepping forward, and Shiro closed his arms around him.

"You scared the crap out of me," Shiro murmured.

"Sorry," Keith barely managed to force out past the sudden lump in his throat. He buried his face in Shiro's shoulder, his eyes suddenly hot. Aware that he was clinging, he tried to take a few deep, calming breaths, and Shiro's arms tightened a little around him in response.

They stood like that until Keith felt calm enough to be able to pull back and look Shiro in the eye again. To his surprise, Shiro looked about as wrecked as Keith felt.

"You okay?" Shiro asked.

Keith nodded. "You?"

Shiro smiled, reaching out again but this time to pat him on the shoulder. "Great, now that we've got you back."

Keith found himself returning the smile, the cold knot in his stomach unfurling a little.

"Ready to get some food? You must be starving."

Keith actually didn't feel very hungry, but he was eager to rid himself of the weakness and light-headedness that were still plaguing him.

With Shiro's help, Keith managed to make his way to the rec room mostly under his own power. He barely made it two steps into the room though before he was swept into a crushing hug by Hunk.

It took everything Keith had to stop himself from physically lashing out at being grabbed like that, his nerves obviously still pretty shot. He firmly reminded himself that Hunk was not a threat.

"Oh man, Keith! It's so good to see you!" Hunk exclaimed.

"Hunk, you saw him an hour ago," Pidge pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but now he actually looks like Keith again, and not like someone that just walked off the set of a horror movie, you know?"

"Uh…thanks?" Keith gasped. "Hunk, I kinda…"

"You're squishing him," Lance finished for him.

Hunk glanced back at Keith. "Oh! Sorry!" he said, immediately setting him back on his feet and releasing his hold on him. Then he quickly reached out to steady Keith when he teetered. "Whoa, okay, we really need to get some food in you."

Keith let Hunk guide him to a chair. A plate filled with food goo and a box of space juice were already waiting for him.

"How are you feeling, Keith?" Allura asked, standing close beside him.

"Better," Keith replied, taking a bite. And suddenly he was ravenous. Food goo had never tasted so good. The others joined him at the table and for a moment he enjoyed just being among his friends again, listening to their banter while he ate. But eventually his curiosity got the better of him. "So… how did you guys find me?" he asked in between bites.

Lance took that as his cue to launch into a colorful, and probably slightly dramatized, account of the past four days. Keith was surprised to learn about the role the Samorians loyal to the Queen had played in his rescue, especially Raznek, who hadn't exactly welcomed him with open arms when they'd first met. Which was putting it mildly.

Hearing about the state they'd found him in was hard, and he struggled to keep some memories from resurfacing and to keep his emotions under wraps.

"Sounds like it was a crazy few days," he said once Lance had wrapped up the story. Keith glanced around at all of them. "Thanks for…coming to get me."

Hunk snorted. "Well, I mean, did you think we wouldn't?"

Keith stared at him before quickly looking away. "Uh…no, of course not."

The rest of them abruptly fell silent.

"Oh my god, you did think that, didn't you?" Lance blurted.

Keith pushed his nearly empty plate aside, the mice immediately diving in to finish off the leftover goo. "No! I just- I…" He felt himself grow warm under their stares, and shoved away from the table. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed."

"Keith…" Shiro said.

But Keith couldn't look at him right now. His legs thankfully didn't fail him this time when he stood and moved to the door.

"Keith, wait!" Hunk called after him.

Keith didn't stop. He couldn't.

oOo

That night, sleep just wouldn't come. Every time he closed his eyes, angry, jumbled images played across the back of his eyelids. He even tried sleeping with the lights on, but that didn't help, nor did keeping a constant grip on his Marmora blade.

With a frustrated sigh he rolled out of bed and pulled on the nearest set of clothes before palming the door open and heading out. He didn't have a destination in mind – he was still too weak to go a few rounds with a gladiator and survive, but maybe a walk would help clear his head a little.

He didn't make it far before he collided with someone who was just rounding the corner, and he would've crashed to the floor if a strong hand hadn't wrapped itself around his bicep and kept him upright.

"Keith!" Hunk exclaimed. "Quiznak, I'm sorry, man! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Keith replied, rubbing a sore spot on his chest. He'd never realized Hunk was this solid. "What are you doing up? It's two in the morning."

Hunk released his arm. "Yeah, I just couldn't sleep, man. You know, with everything that happened and stuff. What about you? You look exhausted, you should be in bed."

Keith shrugged. "Couldn't sleep either."

"Right," Hunk said, giving him a sidelong look. "So where were you headed? Dude, don't tell me you were gonna hit the training deck?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "I'm not that stupid, Hunk. I was just gonna go for a walk."

"Oh," Hunk said. He hesitated, then asked, "Want some company?"

Keith stared at him. "Uh…sure?"

"Great!"

After only a few steps though, Hunk paused. "Actually, you need to come to the kitchen with me."

"What? Why?"

Hunk grinned at him, grabbing his wrist and towing him towards the kitchen. "You haven't tried my extra special Tovarian sugar cookies yet!"

"Your extra special…whats?" Keith said, bewildered.

When they got to the kitchen, Hunk nudged Keith towards a chair and then took out a plate covered with some kind of foil. It contained three oddly shaped cookies about the size of a donut.

"I baked them this afternoon to celebrate you being back with us and stuff, but then you uh…you left kind of quick so you didn't get a chance to try them," Hunk said, and Keith instantly felt bad for his abrupt departure earlier that evening.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Hunk waved him off. "Nah, dude, it's okay. I totally understand. You really need to try these cookies though," he said, unwrapping the foil from around the plate. "The others really like 'em – I barely managed to fight them off to rescue these three for you. Seriously, they're a bunch of vultures when it comes to these cookies."

Keith smiled. "Thanks for your heroic efforts then."

"Any time, dude. Now, c'mon, try one already!"

Keith wasn't really hungry, but Hunk was watching him with such hopeful anticipation that he didn't have the heart to refuse. So, he took a bite, chewing thoughtfully before his eyes widened. "Wow. These…are actually really good."

Hunk beamed and pumped his fist. "Yes, I knew it! I knew you'd like 'em!"

Keith laughed and took another bite. Hunk sat down beside him and began to ramble about recipes and ingredients and his mom's cooking and after a while Keith's eyelids started to feel heavy. He valiantly tried to rouse himself several times and made an effort to nod at appropriate moments to show Hunk he was still listening, but it became a losing battle.

When he startled awake the next morning, Keith found himself in his own bed, wearing the clothes he'd pulled on hours before, a plate with two cookies on an improvised table beside him.

oOo

Allura arranged a meeting to take place with the Samorian Queen later that day.

Unwilling to expose her paladins to any more unnecessary danger, Allura had taken the castle into orbit around the planet as soon as Shiro and the other paladins had retrieved Keith. Rather than meeting the Queen in her palace on Samoria to discuss the status of their alliance, Allura had chosen to invite a delegation – the Queen herself and two of her most trusted advisors – to the Castle of Lions.

"Keith, could I speak with you for a moment?" Allura asked a few hours before the meeting was scheduled to take place.

Frowning, Keith followed her into the control room, which was empty except for the mice hanging out on one of the consoles. "What is it, Princess?"

She turned to look at him, an expression on her face that had him cross his arms uncomfortably.

"How are you feeling, Keith?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Keith replied, avoiding her gaze. "Uh…you?"

Allura smiled. "I am well, thank you, Keith. The reason why I have asked to speak with you is because I wanted you to have the last say in whether or not we will go through with our alliance with the Samorians."

Keith did a double-take. "You- I…what?"

"They are the reason we almost lost you, Keith. Thus far, they have proven to be a highly unreliable partner – extremist rebel groups or not – and at this point I am inclined to withdraw from our initial agreement."

Keith stared at her. Allura was willing to turn away a potential ally against the Galra, because of what had happened to him? "Have…have you discussed this with Shiro?"

Allura nodded. "He believes finding allies is important, but that we have no use for allies we cannot trust implicitly." Her brows drew together in a deep frown. "Keith, what they did to you was unforgivable."

Keith turned his gaze to the floor, chewing on his bottom lip as he mulled that over. "But…it wasn't the Samorian government that kidnapped me, was it?"

"No. It was a rebel group that captured you, but some of the fanatics must have infiltrated Queen Ditaria's palace – how else would they know about you being Galra?"

She had a point, but… Keith thought back to the way things were back on Earth, to how many governments struggled with rebel groups and fanatics they had no control over.

"They may not like me very much," Keith said finally, "but I don't think it would be fair to punish an entire race for something only a small group did. And we need all the allies we can get. They clearly hate the Galra so I think that when the time comes, we can trust them to join us in our fight against them."

Allura's eyes widened, but then her surprise faded into an expression that resembled…sadness? Pride? Keith couldn't be sure.

She gave him a soft smile. "You are a true Paladin of Voltron, Keith."

Heat crept into Keith's face. "Um…thank you."

Keith knew he'd made the right decision, but that didn't make it easier to keep his emotions in check when faced with the Samorian Queen and her two advisors later that day. The Queen apologized to him and vowed to bring the culprits to justice. Keith couldn't help but doubt her sincerity, and he was glad he wasn't expected to sit in on the diplomatic talks. He made his escape as soon as he could without seeming rude.

But unpleasant memories pushed at him aggressively for the rest of the day and now they were even haunting him in his sleep. He woke with a start barely two hours after finally dropping off. Keith gasped and swallowed, tasting that awful gag the Samorians had put on him.

Sitting up, he rubbed his face. He needed to do something to get his mind off of things. So he got up and changed out of his pajamas and into a t-shirt, pants and his boots. Stretching his arms above his head, he opened the door and strode into the hallway – and almost tripped over Pidge, who was sitting on the floor next to his door, back leaning against the wall, laptop resting against her knees.

Keith blinked at her. "Uh…Pidge? What are you doing here?"

Pidge squinted up at him. "Working on my computer."

"I can see that, but…why are you doing it here?"

"Why not here?" Pidge said with a shrug. "Where are you going?"

"Uh…I was gonna go train for a bit."

"Oh, cool, can I join you?" Pidge asked, already shutting down her laptop.

Keith stared down at her. She wanted to join him? Pidge hated training. "You…want to spar with me?" he asked skeptically. "In the middle of the night?"

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Duh, why would I ask to join you if I didn't?"

Good question.

"Okay, uh…sure," Keith said, still bewildered.

They ended up practicing hand-to-hand. Keith didn't go easy on Pidge, but to be fair, she didn't go easy on him either, coming at him with everything she had, including some sneaky tricks she had up her sleeve and that Keith only barely managed to dodge. Every now and then he gave her a few pointers, and afterwards they summoned their bayards and teamed up against a gladiator.

After taking it down, they both sank to the floor, leaning their backs against the wall.

"We make a good team," Pidge said, still catching her breath.

Keith grinned at her, wiping at the sweat on his face with the back of his wrist. Nothing like a good fight to get the endorphins flowing. "We do."

"You gonna be okay?" Pidge asked.

Keith glanced at the rapidly forming bruise on his arm from a hit he'd taken for Pidge. "Yeah, it's nothing."

"I didn't mean just that."

Oh.

"I'll be fine," Keith said, pulling his knees up.

"You know…Lance was really worried about you."

Keith snorted. "Yeah, right."

"No, really. He was totally ready to go in there bayard blazing to get you out," Pidge said, glancing up at him. "We all were."

Keith said nothing, trying to process what Pidge was saying. A warm feeling was growing in the pit of his stomach.

"You know how I feel about my family, right?" Pidge continued.

Keith frowned at the non sequitur, confused. "Uh…yes? What do they have to do with anything?"

Pidge rolled her eyes and looked at him as if she was talking to a particularly dense person. "'They'? Keith, you're a part of my family, genius."

"Oh." Keith swallowed, avoiding her gaze. That was- he didn't know what to say to that.

Pidge scooted a little closer to him until their arms were touching just a little. They sat in silence, Keith mulling over what Pidge had said.

The next morning, Keith woke up on the training deck with a terrible crick in his neck and his head pillowed on Pidge's shoulder.

oOo

Later that day, Red finally came back online.

Keith immediately took her out for a short spin in space. And man, he'd missed it. Missed her. The comforting presence in his mind, although she had been regretful and furious when she'd first reconnected with him, sensing what had been done to him while she'd been offline.

And she was still angry. Keith could feel it in her jerky movements as he maneuvered her through a nearby asteroid field.

Keith applied the brakes and brought her to a halt on the other side. "Hey," Keith said, putting his hand on the console for a moment. "I'm okay. It's over. You don't have to worry about me."

Red roared in response and it was filled with so much fury and sorrow that it took Keith by surprise. He knew Red was protective, but the current emotional outpour was overwhelming and it tugged at something within Keith that he really didn't want to deal with right now.

He closed his eyes and breathed. Red. Calm down. Please. I'm alright.

Red let out another roar, but it was less emotionally-wrought, and eventually it died down to a low growl. Keith breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good kitty," he said with a small smile. "Ready to go back home?"

This time she purred in response.

"Wanna go back through the asteroid field or go around it?"

Red growled with indignation, and Keith grinned. "Through the field it is," he said, and gunned it.

oOo

That night Keith startled awake – someone was shaking him and his eyes flew open, heart racing. He felt disoriented, rattled, phantom pains ghosting along his skin.

"W-what?"

"Hey," a familiar voice said, and Keith's eyes immediately locked onto Lance, standing beside his bed. "You okay? You were yelling."

Keith swallowed, struggling to get a grip, and sat up. "Was not," he argued reflexively, though his voice sounded hoarse and his throat felt raw.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Seriously? You were too. I'm right next door and the walls aren't exactly soundproof, remember?"

Keith didn't respond, focusing on getting his breathing under control. He leaned back against the wall and pulled his legs up, scowling when Lance pulled up a chair beside him and sat down.

"You okay?" Lance asked again.

"I'm fine," Keith gritted out, not looking at him. He wished Lance would just leave.

Lance sighed. "You still don't trust us, do you?" he asked. He didn't sound angry, more like…resigned?

The question took Keith by surprise. "What? What are you talking about?"

"You didn't think we'd come for you," Lance said with a shrug. "That means you don't trust us."

Keith stared at him. "You want to talk about this now? I do trust you guys."

"Well, obviously you don't or you wouldn't have thought we'd—"

"It's not about trust, Lance," Keith interrupted, crossing his arms. He really did not want to talk about this.

"Then what is it about?"

"It's—" Keith's grip on his arms tightened. How could he possibly explain to Lance that, with the exception of Shiro, there had never been anyone in his life to look out for him? He'd always had to look out for himself, he'd always had to get himself out of scrapes. There had never been anyone to bail him out when he was in trouble – and he'd gotten into trouble a lot.

How could he explain all that without sounding pathetic?

"Oh, wait, I get it," Lance said when Keith didn't continue. "You didn't think we were actually capable of rescuing you, right? That's it, isn't it? We're all inferior 'cos you have these mad fighting skills and stuff and we don't, huh? Well, newsflash-"

"It's because nobody ever cared about what happened to me before, you dumbass!" Keith snapped.

Lance shut up.

"I can count on two fingers the number of people who've ever cared about me – one of them is Shiro and the other one's dead!" Keith continued, voice rising. "You get it now? Nobody ever came for me! Why would I think you would?"

Keith bit his tongue and looked at his knees. Why was he even saying this? Damn Lance for making him talk while he was fresh from a nightmare and his guard was down.

"I'm sorry," Lance said after a moment of silence.

He sounded sincere, but Keith didn't want to look at his face right now. Didn't want to know what he would see there.

"I…shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that," Lance continued. "It's just that- I dunno. We're a team, and…it kind of hurts to think you thought we would've just left you there. But…when you put it like that, I guess I can sort of see where you're coming from."

Keith sighed, scratching at a spot on his knee. "Look, I didn't even know what had happened to you guys, okay? I just hoped you were all okay and safe, that was pretty much as far as I got where rational thought was concerned. It's not like I thought you'd leave me there on purpose, I just…wasn't expecting a rescue."

"I get it," Lance replied, voice uncharacteristically quiet.

Silence reigned for a few minutes until finally Lance spoke up again.

"I uh…should probably let you go back to sleep," he said, standing up and putting the chair back.

"Sorry I woke you," Keith muttered.

"Ah, so you admit you were yelling!"

This time Keith did whip around to face Lance, opening his mouth to retort – but the smile on Lance's face was gentle and after a beat Keith found himself returning it.

Lance moved to the door, pausing just inside the doorway to look back over his shoulder. "Just so you know, there's a lot more than two people that care about you now, okay?" he said, just before the door closed behind him.

Keith stared after him for a long time.

oOo

The next morning they were finally ready to leave the Valarum system, and Keith breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Samoria shrink in the distance. And then Allura opened a wormhole and Samoria was gone entirely.

Now he could finally move on.

Shiro found him on the observation deck some time later.

"Hey," he said, joining Keith on one of the couches. "You doing okay?"

Keith looked at him. "Yeah, I'm doing…better."

Shiro raised his eyebrows. "I think I actually believe you this time."

"Okay. Thanks?" Keith said, his own eyebrow raised.

"I didn't mean it like that-" Shiro started, but cut himself off when Keith chuckled.

"It's okay, Shiro, I know what you meant."

Shiro smiled. "Good. So…are you feeling better because we're far away from Samoria now or-?"

"That, but I guess I also learned a few things."

"What kind of things?"

Keith squirmed. "Stuff about the team. About me."

"I'm getting the feeling you're not ready to share yet," Shiro said.

Keith gave him an apologetic look, and Shiro patted his shoulder. "It's fine, Keith. I'm just glad you're feeling better."

"Thanks."

Shiro rose to his feet. "Want to go beat up some gladiators?"

Keith's face split into a grin and he was halfway to the door before Shiro had even moved from his spot.

Shiro laughed, catching up to him quickly. "I'll take that as a yes."

- End -